Letter: Buy local chocolate to fight child labor

The Harkin-Engel Protocol was signed 10 years ago. The protocol is an agreement by the country’s largest chocolate companies to end forced child labor on cocoa farms in West Africa by 2005.

In 2011, thousands of children are still forced to work under abusive conditions on cocoa farms in West Africa. Boo to the largest chocolate manufacturer in the United States, Hershey. According to the human rights organization Global Exchange, Hershey lags behind its competitors in eliminating these abuses from its cocoa supply chain.

I urge Hershey, the most recognized chocolate company in the United States, to protect the workers from cocoa bean to bar and to certify its chocolate as Fair Trade. That would ensure forced child labor is removed from all their chocolate from Hershey Kisses to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.